IRL: Scheckter hits pay dirt at Texas

Say goodbye to that black cloud following Tomas Scheckter since July of
2002. He blew it away tonight in the Bombardier Learjet 500 on Texas Motor
Speedway's 1.5-mile banked oval, taking a Texas typical 0.053-second margin
of victory over Sam ...

Say goodbye to that black cloud following Tomas Scheckter since July of
2002. He blew it away tonight in the Bombardier Learjet 500 on Texas Motor
Speedway's 1.5-mile banked oval, taking a Texas typical 0.053-second margin
of victory over Sam Hornish Jr. after 200 laps of side-by-side racing.
Theirs was the tenth tightest finish in Indy Racing League history.

Checkered flag for Tomas Scheckter.

Photo by Michael C. Johnson.

Scheckter, the polesitter for this race didn't lead from the start and
didn't make any banzai moves on the traditional pack of 22 cars dicing from
start to finish. What Scheckter did was lead the most laps (119) in his
platinum-colored #4 Pennzoil Panther Dallara/Chevrolet/Firestone racer and
lead the ones that counted most, from lap 191 to the checkered flag.

"Sam helped push me to the front," Scheckter explained after leaving the
front straightaway awash in Firestone tire smoke. "I knew we had
everything we needed to get to the front; this is great for the team, for
my morale to get my confidence back up."

Unlike most Texas races the high line around these 24-degree banks wasn't
the hot tip on this warm, humid night. "The high line just wasn't there; I
couldn't get speed there but the car would stick down low. Behind Sam I
could get ahead on the low side," he explained.

"I've changed my shoe colors, my underwear colors, just about everything to
try and get things turned around. At Twin Ring Motegi I pretty much
stepped away and looked at getting to the end of the race, just relaxing
and getting ready to go. I told the team tonight, if you get me out of the
pits in fifth place I can go to the front."

Tomas Scheckter, Sam Hornish Jr. and Dan Wheldon.

Photo by Michael C. Johnson.

For Panther Racing team co-owner Doug Boles, the victory validated their choice to
retain Scheckter despite his 27 DNFs over an IndyCar Series career that
began in 2002. "With all the bad luck we had in 2004 (Scheckter's first
with the team), the most important thing was to stay together and turn it
around. We brought Buddy Lazier in with the third car at Indy for more
input. It's working," Boles revealed.

Hornish simply "didn't have a strong enough car on my own," with a #6
Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Toyota that still is down on power to the
Chevrolets and Hondas. "It handled best behind the 4 car and, while I
tried really hard to get that pass complete on the last lap, it wasn't
there.

"I'm a little disappointed but I was really happy with the car tonight. We
had good pit stops and, who knows? With the right timing maybe I could
pass Tomas but it would be really hard," Hornish admitted.

Tony Kanaan was in the catbird seat with his #11 Team 7/Eleven Dallara/Honda after
the final round of pit stops and did lead 62 laps tonight. Starting 13th
Kanaan moved up easily in the early going and, with only ten laps in the
books had seventh place in hand. He never moved out of the lead pack and
was in contention for his second consecutive win until Scheckter and
Hornish Jr. blew on by.

"We didn't quite have the speed to win the race tonight," Kanaan admitted.
"I think Scheckter deserved it; he had the best car all weekend, he drove a
smart race. We did the best we could today."

Scott Sharp said he spent much of Thursday preparing for tonight's race and
that showed in his fourth place finish and was "really ecstatic."

Tony Kanaan.

Photo by Michael C. Johnson.

The two-time Texas winner diced with the front-runners much of the evening
after taking advantage of an early yellow flag for a quick splash-and-go
for his #8 Delphi Panoz/Honda, trying to solve problems with a "loose car
for the first couple of stints. I really had to fight the car a bit in
traffic," Sharp related.

Helio Castroneves led seven laps in the #3 Marlboro Team Penske
Dallara/Toyota but didn't have the ability to stay with the pack. He
consistently pitted a lap prior to his teammate and ended up fifth at the
close yet was "really happy with our performance. We didn't have the
fastest car but we did what we needed to do."

Point leader and 2005 Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon took sixth place
tonight in the #26 Klein Tools/Jim Beam Dallara/Honda. Wheldon didn't
think his car "was very quick this evening. I lost quite a bit of time on
pit stops and then, when I lost the draft I couldn't do the times the
leaders did," he said.

Second-year driver Kosuke Matsuura used the high line much of the night and
appeared to have an entirely different manner of getting around the Texas
banking with his #55 Panasonic/ARTA Panoz/Honda. Running with the leaders
from 14th on the grid, Matsuura earned seventh place at the close.

Dario Franchitti finished eighth with the #27 ArcaEx Dallara/Honda,
slipping two positions from his sixth place grid spot due to out-of-
sequence stops and a high side pass by teammate Kanaan that caused the Scot
to lose the lead pack.

Vitor Meira "lost contact with the lead pack in the middle of the race and
couldn't get back in touch," he contended. Surprised by the lack of
caution periods in mid-race, "My right foot was getting tired of stomping
on the throttle" of his #17 Menards/Johns Manville Panoz/Honda. He
finished ninth.

Bryan Herta rounded out the top ten with the #7 XM Satellite Radio
Dallara/Honda. When the leaders pitted on lap 63 Herta felt a vibration,
making another two stops to try and remedy the situation. His team never
found the reason for the problem and Herta continued on, "struggling in
traffic. When the sun went down, the car got really loose."

In all, only three drivers of 22 starters dropped out of the contest.
Jimmy Kite caused the first caution on lap 7 when he clouted the Turn 2
SAFER barrier with his #91 Ethanol Hemelgarn Dallara/Toyota. "For some
reason the car snuck around on me but I just don't know what happened," he
said.

It took a while to clean up the debris and the track went green again on
the 16th lap, only to fall to yellow again on lap 26 when Buddy Rice's
gearbox gave up on the #15 Argent Mortgage/Pioneer Panoz/Honda. He slowed
on the apron and, in fact the team tried to effect repairs on pit road to
no avail. "A vibration got really bad and I didn't have any gears," Rice
explained.

Green flags came out again on lap 32 but caution waved once more for a tow-
in for the #2 RockStar Dallara/Chevrolet of second starter Tomas Enge, who
experienced an electrical problem that would relegate Enge to 19th at the
close, six laps down. Enge did set the fastest lap of the race on lap 193
of 216.184mph.

The only other caution came about when Ed Carpenter hit the Turn 1 wall
after sparking his way down the front straight with the #20 Vision Racing
Dallara/Toyota on lap 64. Carpenter had made a recent pit stop and team
manager ordered a tire pressure adjustment and big front wing decrease,
which may have aided the problem.

Once the track was cleared of Carpenter's stricken car that was it for
caution periods, making good green flag pit stops essential to a fine
finish. Scott Dixon took 11th with the #9 Target Panoz/Toyota, followed by
rookie teammate Ryan Briscoe's #33 Target/Pioneer Panoz/Toyota.

Danica Patrick finished 13th after dicing with Briscoe during the latter
stages. "It took me a little while to learn how the car was going to react
in traffic," she said after missing much of the final two practices with
poorly balanced wheels. "This was a tougher day but we finished and I
gained a lot of experience" in her #16 Argent Mortgage/Pioneer Panoz/Honda.

Alex Barron took 14th in the #51 Red Bull Cheever Racing Dallara/Toyota on
his 35th birthday, the first car a lap down from the leaders. At the start
his car was a bit loose, "but we were able to get it back underneath us. I
ran 80 percent of the race flat out but we just couldn't move forward," the
Californian said.

Roger Yasukawa had a fast #24 Racing for Kids Dallara/Honda but finished
15th. "We picked up a lot of push midway and lost the draft," he
explained. Patrick Carpentier soldiered to 16th in the #83 Red Bull
Cheever Racing Dallara/Toyota yet didn't think it was too bad a result.
"The crew did a good job in the pits but after a while we lost the lead
pack and started going backwards," the French Canadian said.

Darren Manning took 17th in the #10 Target Panoz/Toyota and A.J. Foyt IV
was two laps back in the #14 ABC Supply Dallara/Toyota.

Until tonight Tomas Scheckter had led a relentless 252 laps here at Texas
Motor Speedway without the result he was looking for. Adding another 119
laps was quite an accomplishment, but the resulting win was even better, a
relief for the fourth year IndyCar Series driver.

The Indy cars have a test date at Watkins Glen and race once more in two
weeks at Richmond International Raceway. Wheldon continues to lead the
point chase with 262, followed by Kanaan with 197 and Hornish Jr. at 186
points. Herta holds 159 fourth place points and Meira lies fifth with 158
points.